Clouds and Stars
by CherriesandRoses89
Summary: They are beautiful ... and so are you. ShikaTema one shot


**Standard Disclaimer Applied.**

**I do not own Naruto Characters.**

**This was initially a ShikaxTema one shot. I've added a second chapter at a request for this to be made _un-one shot. _  
So now this is sort of a "_compilation_" of sorts. **

Hope you like it.  
Please Read, enjoy, and review.

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**dedicated to lost-in-shangrila  
(**one of the mnay fanfic writers i am sooo jealous of right now, don't worry, I'm not coming to kill you any time soon. hehe

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**Clouds and Stars**

A dark haired boy sat on the grass, gazing lazily up at the clouds. It was so peaceful out here in the woods, away from the noise of chattering people going about their business. Here, all he could hear was the trees and the breeze and the birds.

"The clouds are so free," he said quietly to himself. He thought of the kind of life he would have preferred to live: not exactly the kind of life he led now. He did not really want the 'exciting' ninja life that he led. Not all the time anyway. What he really wanted was …

"They are, aren't they?" said a voice.

"Wha?" Shikamaru jumped to his feet, spun round and saw a wheat-golden-haired girl smiling at him.

"Oh, its you," he said, relaxing.

"You're so polite."

"What are you doing here, Temari?" asked Shikamaru, turning his back to her and jumping up a tall tree. He sat on one of the highest branches and listened to the birdsong. Temari jumped up and landed silently beside him.

"You have a nice view of Konoha from up here."

"Yeah, you do," Shikamaru replied drowsily.

For several minutes, they looked silently on Konoha village. The Hokage Mountain towered over all. They could see small dots that were people going about their business.

"Don't you ever do anything else during your leisure time other than stare at the clouds?" Temari asked, taking a seat beside him. The sun was beginning to set, turning the sky crimson.

"What's it to you?" Shikamaru retorted. "And you still haven't told me what you're doing here. Thought I'd need you to help me fight off some girl again, did you?"

Temari sat wide-eyed, staring at Shikamaru for a few moments. How could he be so rude? She hadn't done or said anything wrong to insult him or Konoha. She got up and jumped down without a word. Within seconds, she was swallowed by the trees.

Shikamaru sighed. "Women, how troublesome." He leaned back against the trunk, dangling one leg down the branch. The Ninjas of the Sand had been Konoha's allies since Orochimaru had first attempted to destroy Konoha. They had been friends ever since.

Temari was scarier than his own mother. She was straightforward and harsh. But she had a nice, charming smile. Shikamaru shook the thoughts away and sighed again. The sun was completely set and the sky was darkening.

"Guess I'll take a nice nighttime walk."

Shikamaru jumped down and slowly walked through the darkening woods. The gentle breeze rustled the leaves of the trees ever so slightly, the crickets chirped and somewhere in the dark an owl hooted serenely. He wandered about the trees without giving much thought to where he was going. Tomorrow his father was going to pass on a new shadow technique to him — or so he had been promised. That was if his father had not received another mission.

Over an hour later, he heard a soft rustle of leaves that had nothing to do with the wind. The sound came from directly above him.

"Still out at this time of night?" he said, without looking up to face her.

"The stars are beautiful," said Temari. Shikamaru half wondered whether she was talking to him, or whether she had heard him speak to her at all. "My mother loved the stars," she continued. "Whenever I woke up from a bad dream, she'd tell me to just look out the window and take a look at the stars. She said they would watch over me and chase the bad dreams away. She said that, when she died, she would be up there, looking down at me, watching over me."

Shikamaru hadn't moved. He stood still and quiet underneath the tree atop which she sat, gazing up at the night sky littered with bright stars.

"After she died, I'd look out my window every night before I went to sleep. I knew she was watching over me." There was a pressing silence broken only by the subtle sound of the night insects. Then she heaved a sad sigh. "When Gaara was much younger and couldn't sleep, he'd come to my room and look up at the stars with me. I know he still looks up at them some nights."

She was alarmed as she felt a warm hand take hold of her cold ones. She turned to see Shikamaru sitting silently beside her.

"They are beautiful," he said simply.

She smiled. So there _was_ some kindness underneath that hide of indifference.

"And so are you," he added quietly. He turned to face her. Her eyes sparkled in the starlight and she looked pale. There was a look of surprise on her face.

Shikamaru smiled. "Women," he said, "how troublesome."

Temari returned the smile and opened her mouth to say something but seemed to think better of it. In his eyes now she did not see the lazy look that they usually had. Instead there was the look that she had seen when he was in a fight during a mission. That calm, poised, determined look. And yet there was something unfamiliar there.

Shikamaru thought her eyes were pretty. There was a puzzled look in them still, but that only made her all the more beautiful. There was that uneasy gut feeling again. He did not know exactly what it was but it had bothered him for a few months now. His chest tightened slightly as he continued to look into her mystified eyes.

Without thinking about what he was doing, he moved closer to her. And, there under the clouds, the moon and the stars, he kissed her.

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**Hope you like this one. This ShikaxTema one-shot was my first fanfic. **

Next up: The Lone Lakeside Blossom.


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